The CROOKED HOUSE.org

We are a team of four people - all with family members who have a mental illness. One professional cinematographer, a TV film editor, one journalist, author and playwright and the other an enthusiastic administrator with a history in neuro-plasticity research.

Originally conceived as a documentary, the CROOKED HOUSE started with just a few video interviews done in Santa Fe, NM. We continue to encourage and promote story sharing.

Grounded in the firm belief that the children of mental illness are all too often over-looked and ignored because of the domestic chaos. We hope that by joining our voices we can change this for the children, youth and teens currently in a home with parental mental illness.

“My mom was very paranoid. Especially early on, she got deadbolts installed and an alarm system and she would lock the front door with, like, a heavy piece of furniture every night. When she was at her most paranoid she thought that people were trying to kill all of us.” (Marin) The challenges of growing up with a parent who has mental illness is now being addressed in www.TheCrookedHouse.org – an innovative website that features video stories by individuals describing their personal experiences. By hearing these stories and sharing their own, people deal with an experience that was often frightening, confusing, stressful and isolating. The website lists resources related to this topic, offers a forum for writing personal stories and shares stories from across the country and other countries. A blog with multiple authors, such as activist Mike McCarthy conveys insights generated from his experience with his father who is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The TheCrookedHouse.org website was created by a team of family members and professional videographers and writers. “Our goal is to collect diverse accounts from individuals who have had this very difficult experience in their lives,” says award-winning videographer Doug Crawford.

“We believe a website is a flexible and interactive way to reach a lot of people. A week after the site went up, we heard from Montreal and South Australia and everyone was impressed.”

Support the CROOKED HOUSE project by sharing your story and donating now.

"The unavoidable message of this epidemiological and clinical research is that we are taking a huge and unnecessary risk if we skirt our responsibilities as mothers (and fathers) to handle our own depression, addiction, or other mental disorders. . . .Children acquire [their parent's] genes just as they internalize our everyday behaviors. "Victoria Costello, A Lethal Inheritance